So my friend and your friend Lily Bailey – author of the 2016 OCD memoir Because We Are Bad: OCD and a Girl Lost in Thought and host of Wednesday night community resource, #OCDtalkhour - has got a new book out this week!

It’s called When I See Blue, it’s in shops this Thursday on June 9th, and it’s a story aimed at children about a 12-year-old boy with OCD called Ben. I’m sure many of you listening to this podcast will think back to your childhood and remember how lost and confused you felt not understanding what was happening to you and why you were having such difficulty with thought. And so I think it’s super inspiring that Lily has written this book. Be the change you want to see and all that. I thought it about time that I got Lily on the podcast – her first time, amazingly - and I’m really grateful that she took the time to speak to me last week to tell me more about the book and what she’s got planned next.

Enjoy the episode! And buy the book!

Want more? Please investigate my new podcast, Shame, today! - https://tinyurl.com/33jv594y

It’s been ages and ages has it not! Yeah, I never got around to finishing season 2 did I? Life – unsurprisingly for a dude with OCD – got a bit weird there for a while. I stayed busy working on my Substack – you should check that out, at spoook.substack.com, I write a lot about OCD there – and I kept making two of my other podcasts, The James McMahon Music Podcast and Shame, both available (as they say) wherever you get your podcasts.

But my OCD got pretty bad. It was getting pretty bad around the time I stopped publishing episodes. And then I started having a bunch of new therapy… which has been going really well actually. I’ve had a few wobbles. Quite big wobbles. But for the largest part things have been getting good. I feel like I’ve learned to manage my OCD better than I did when I was putting out episodes all the time – which means… I think I’m ready to start working on season three.

I’ve got a few ideas of people I want to speak to, but I thought it might be a nice idea to officially end season two here, with a conversation I recently had with Chris Hawkins on BBC 6 Music about my life with OCD. Now, I’m sure I’m not supposed to have taped the interview off the radio and repurposed it here for you, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’m not worried. I don’t worry about normal things. Just whether I’ve tapped a table enough times or whether I’m going to cut my arm off. OCD it’s absolutely bloody bonkers, right?

Enjoy this chat, won’t you. And season 3 is coming…

On this episode of The OCD Chronicles, I’m talking to Dr. Katie Gordon.

Katie is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in cognitive-behavioural therapy, and she’s done research work in the field of eating disorders. So far, so relevant to both this podcast and my own personal journey... Katie is also the co-host of the Psychodrama podcast. And yet the main reason why I wanted to talk to Katie for this episode was to learn more about her new book,The Suicidal Thoughts Workbook: CBT Skills to Reduce Emotional Pain, Increase Hope, and Prevent Suicide. There’s much real talk contained within, but I wanted to say something before you dive in. If you’re thinking of listening to this podcast, chances are you struggle with OCD too. I know the pain you’re in. I know how hard it can be. But please know how sincere I am when I say this... I really would like you to stay.

A few things I should mention...

Want more of this sort of thing? Please investigate my new podcast, Shame, today! - https://tinyurl.com/33jv594y

The podcast I reference in the episode? It's the excellent Sound Affects podcast, by my friend Katy Georgiou. This is the interview with me - https://tinyurl.com/5pju94sk

This is my favourite Nirvana song - https://tinyurl.com/37ntahz